Two projects have gotten the
most traction within the technical
steering committee: collaborative
efforts in the OpenStack and
blockchain spaces. In addition,
the committee is evaluating
several smaller projects.
This committee, Dickens says,
is "where the heavy lifting is
done around which projects
we're going to fund from a
technical perspective and,
really, where we drive the R&D
element of the project." The
marketing committee lays the
groundwork for promoting the
Open Mainframe Project's mission
on social media and through
community-outreach events.
THE NEXT GENERATION
Including academic institutions
provides an opportunity to
educate the next generation of
mainframe Linux engineers and
developers. Through its internship program, the Open Mainframe Project provides funding
for college students to perform
development work. It's designed
to help students expand their
knowledge of mainframe technology while they contribute to
open-source projects.
Eight college students across
the globe participated in the
"Academic institutions and
IBM will come together to develop
OpenStack for the platform. That's the
first time we've done that-it's
really exciting."
-Steven Dickens, global offering manager, z Systems cloud, IBM
program during the summer of
2016. As part of the application
process, prospective interns
proposed projects to the
technical steering committee,
which then selected eight
interns to fund for an eight-week
internship. They were matched
with mentors from the technical
steering committee to work on
their proposed projects.
The interns highlighted
their work during the SHARE
conference in Atlanta last
summer, as well as on the Open
Mainframe Project blog and
YouTube channel. Dickens has
received positive feedback from
both the mentors and interns,
and one intern secured a job
at ADP immediately following
graduation.
"It's a strong program to get
some fantastic experience and
W
Open Mainframe
Project
membership
grew more than
2x
in the first
16
months
Open Mainframe Project Resources
The Open Mainframe Project website: openmainframeproject.org
Learn about the intern program: bit.ly/2hspu6Y
Check out the YouTube channel: bit.ly/2gXxyMH
Follow on Twitter: twitter.com/OpenMFProject
"I am a Mainframer" series: twitter.com/hashtag/IamaMainframer
build the resume, but it could
also lead to employment,"
Dickens points out. Also,
introducing college students to
the mainframe positions it as a
modern platform. "We talk about
the platform and open source,
but hearing the excitement for
operating on the platform from
college students really brings it
home," he says.
The deadline for the 2017
internship program has
passed, but more information
about it can be found online
(bit.ly/2hspu6Y).
WHAT'S AHEAD
The Open Mainframe Project had
a presence at SHARE, GSE, CA
World and SUSECon in 2016,
and several events are planned
for this year, including booths at
both SHARE conferences. Its "I
am a Mainframer" social media
program, which addresses what
it means to be a mainframer, will
continue throughout 2017. This
program involves open-source
community members, board
members and interns.
The community has been
doing some technical work on
OpenStack, which is going to be
a group effort, he notes. "Instead
of IBM doing all of the heavy
lifting, taking the technical lead
and pushing some of the code
36 // MARCH/APRIL 2017 ibmsystemsmag.com
pg 34-37.indd 4
2/7/17 1:49 PM

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page.
If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.